Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 562
Only Krnovel
EP.562 Episode 562 – A World You Can’t Remember (1)
Episode 562 – A World You Can’t Remember (1)
– Lee Eun-sol
I’ve been losing sleep over the past few nights.
Because I was so afraid of the aftermath of my spontaneous wish from the other world, ‘Please make Hotel Delight the number one hotel in Korea!’
How on earth do you plan on listening to me?
Could it be that an earthquake occurred in one of the so-called top three hotels, which are ranked higher than Hotel Delight?!
If tens of thousands of people die in the process, is that my fault?
Eww!
What if the management gets angry and comes to dispose of the murderer, Lee Eun-sol?
If you’ve caused that much trouble, shouldn’t you just stick your neck out and say, ‘Please kill me!’?
“Director, you haven’t looked so good lately. You seem to be in bad shape. Would you like to go to the hospital?”
How bad must the expression have been for even the secretary to say something like that?
“… It’s still okay.”
It was still okay.
Because nothing happened.
“…”
Is this okay?
Is it normal for something to go wrong when you make a wish?
Shouldn’t the stock price rise even for trivial reasons?
This can’t be happening.
Clearly something has happened, something that will significantly boost Hotel Delight’s ranking in Korea!
I just don’t know.
One day, I was spending my days like this, losing sleep over anxiety.
I went to work early in the morning and opened the office door, and a man I had never seen before was waiting for me.
“Participant Eunsol Lee. Let me formally introduce myself. I am from the Korean branch of the Management Office.”
The administration sent someone.
I wasn’t surprised.
Because the additional contact was expected when the unidentified monster appeared and I learned that I was a participant.
“I didn’t know you would suddenly show up at the office.”
“I’m sorry. Because of my job, I tend to avoid public attention.”
“Are you an agent?”
“No. To put it simply, I’m an employee with a high security clearance.”
The polite and well-mannered attitude somehow irritated me.
Of course, I would have hated it even more if he had acted threateningly like that guy before.
“Participant Lee Eun-sol, Director of the Korean branch Park Hyeon-min wants to see you. Would you like to leave right away?”
They openly call me a participant.
It feels awkward because it emphasizes something like ‘we know about you’.
“…”
I thought about it, but I came to a conclusion.
If I were a wanderer in the world alone, it wouldn’t be a problem, but avoiding things while running a business is not a good idea.
Since I have proven through my clash in the other world that ‘I am not an opponent to be taken lightly’, my opponent will not easily cross the line either.
“let’s go.”
*
A middle-aged man with a tired look and glasses.
This is my first impression of Park Hyeon-min, the head of the Korean branch of the Management Office.
Just by looking at their appearance, they were indistinguishable from ordinary people outside.
Well, it’s a bit strange that Ari, who is the most flashy person in the world and is a secret organization agent, is the one doing it.
“Participant Lee Eun-sol, I heard about the ‘unavoidable contact’ a while ago. That’s too bad.”
Inevitable contact.
Are you talking about a conflict that occurred in another world?
“Isn’t it enough to just say sorry? It’s like you were trying to brainwash me.”
“Brainwashing? Oh, you thought the Book of Oath was something like that?”
‘The Book of Covenant’.
Given the circumstances, it seems like he’s talking about the scroll summoned by a former participant we met a while ago.
The name was very intuitive and the effect was immediately apparent.
“If you write a contract on that scroll, it can never be broken? Is that so?”
“As expected of a hotel escapee, you’re quick-witted. Accurate.”
“I don’t think that’s all.”
“…”
“Isn’t there some kind of secret ability? For example, the owner can break the contract.”
“There’s no need to think about it. I don’t know. If there’s a way to detect the truth, I’d like to try it.”
An attitude that seems to contemplate all sorts of supernatural powers.
“If you have it, can I use it?”
“Then you’ll trust me a little. Write it down.”
— Click!
As the ‘Ho-Jeop-Mong’ opened, a butterfly flew in and landed on the arm of the Korean branch manager.
The power to detect the truth?
Actually, that’s what Elena has, not me.
But if you float a mysterious butterfly like this, wouldn’t the other person get nervous?
“You’re bluffing. Don’t you have any ability to detect the truth?”
“…”
I got caught right away.
“If there are any colleagues with relevant abilities, you may bring them along. I hope that there will be at least a minimum level of trust in the conversation from now on.”
What is the intention?
Are you trying to find a hidden comrade? That’s too obvious to say –
“There is no hidden intention. If you want, I can seat Agent Kim Ari.”
“…”
Even though I didn’t say anything, you could read my mind.
For a moment, I doubted whether this man had mastered the art of mind reading.
“If you doubt whether I can read your mind, you are mistaken. There is no need to be.”
“…What do you mean?”
“I mean, this isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with hotel escapees. It’s my first time, of course.”
Experience accumulated within the organizational unit?
Anyway, I felt uneasy because I felt like I was being used in a psychological war.
“I’ll get straight to the point. Ms. Eunsol Lee, are you thinking of joining the management bureau?”
“Let me be blunt. I can cooperate to the extent necessary, but I won’t consider anything more than that -”
“Here, your agent ID.”
What is this?
No, when did you even put my picture on it to make an agent ID?
“No, sir, didn’t you hear what I said?”
“Didn’t you say you would cooperate to the necessary level?”
“What does that have to do with being an agent and being loyal to the Bureau!”
“You, there seems to be a misunderstanding about the agent.”
“what?”
“Agents are not loyal to the Bureau. They only use the Bureau.”
“what -”
“Think about it. The chosen ones who regard the destruction of all things as nothing more than a ‘long sleep’, those whose very existence is a miracle, are the agents.”
“…”
“You are small kings with big egos. What loyalty can there be in the hearts of kings?”
For a moment, I was speechless.
If I’m not mistaken, this man, Park Hyeon-min, the head of the Korean branch of the Management Bureau, seemed to be jealous of the agent.
The story comparing the agent to a little king seems to be Park Hyun-min’s personal opinion.
If you ask Ari, wouldn’t he tell you a completely different story?
Anyway, I knew it at the same time.
The Korean branch manager’s jealousy is real, but it was also his intention to reveal his jealousy to me.
“I have no intention of demanding loyalty.”
“…”
“Use it. Use the Bureau as your predecessors have done, as other agents have done.”
“…”
“My hands are starting to hurt. Are you that scared of this tiny badge?”
— Bam!
The ‘Agent Lee Eun-sol’ badge came into my hand.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
“Anything I know.”
“The person I met a few days ago, a former contestant.”
“Unfortunately, I think there are more questions than answers. But I’ll ask anyway.”
“Aside from that person, there are many other participants, right? I think a lot of them are the leaders of the Management Bureau.”
“yes.”
“That man tried to subdue me and put me in chains, but failed.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Now, you are asking for my cooperation without any means of control over me… .”
“however?”
“Can you trust me?”
I was curious about this.
“That’s an easy question. If you were to betray us because you are untrustworthy, that would also be valuable information.”
“yes?”
“We in the next world will not repeat the same mistakes. So, Agent Eunsol Lee, if you are thinking of betraying, remember that you are no longer mortal, and neither are we.”
It was a heavy conversation.
Just before we parted ways, saying we would contact each other later, I asked just in case.
“Well, I have one more question.”
“Ask.”
“What would it take for Delight Hotel to suddenly become number one in its industry?”
“…”
The head of the Korean branch of the Management Office, who seemed to know everything, looked bewildered for the first time.
It didn’t satisfy my curiosity, but it was nice to see.
*
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: 35th day
Current location: Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Wise Man’s Advice: 3”
– Han Ga-in
I thought to myself as I took a sip of my Americano.
It’s already happened.
I escaped from reality.
There has been chaos surrounding several of our comrades, and it appears to be a plot by former participants to find and test us.
The hotel owner anticipated this and gave instructions to ‘act like a normal person’.
Several people have been caught in the process, but fortunately I have not been caught yet thanks to the content of my wish.
What happens next?
Considering the merchant’s advice, something big will happen in six months or a year, depending on the circumstances.
From then on, you no longer need to try so hard not to get caught as you do now.
Additionally, at unspecified times, a light that calls for the end occurs, and it was Ari and her grandfather’s goal to prevent this from happening.
Could the cause of this phenomenon be the same as No. 207? I’m not sure about that.
So, what should we do from now on?
“…”
Close your eyes and cover your ears like a normal person and endure for 5 months?
It’s harder than you think.
How can it be easy to just sit back and relax when you know something terrible could happen later?
But if I wander around here and there, I feel uneasy because I think a former participant who is somewhere might try to take advantage of me.
“Wow, these guys are unbelievable.”
The answer came right away.
“Who are you talking about?”
He is the silent grandfather.
After forcibly cutting off contact with Ari a few days ago, Ari told me a funny story through Eunsol.
‘If you don’t want to contact me because you’re worried about the Bureau, fine. Contact Mukseong instead. Mukseong is no longer an Agent of the Bureau.’
My grandfather is said to have retired from his work as an agent.
He made a wish and erased all the information the administration had about his grandfather, so in a way, you could say he’s a colleague who’s as free as I am.
“I’m talking about the former participants. Think about it. Could a sane person escape from a place like a hotel? It seems like they were just human scum, and they escaped with only their own body saved… .”
“Huh! When I hear you say that, I can’t help but sigh!”
“why?”
“I bet they’re thinking the same thing about us.”
“…”
There can be no trust, but the former participants are ambiguous beings who cannot be called enemies without reason.
Eventually, it seems like we need to break this ambiguous deadlock and establish a relationship… .
“So, Gain, this is what you’re saying? If I move actively, I’m afraid of being caught up in the sinister schemes of the previous participants, and if I stay still, I’m afraid of the light that will call for the end that will begin someday.”
“That’s it.”
“I’m in a dilemma because I’m scared to act and scared to stay still.”
“That’s correct.”
“What advice would you give?”
“It’s less helpful than I thought. It looks like at least one of the participants has ‘wisdom’.”
As a result, any plausible question will result in a warning that it is a ‘rule violation’.
“Hmm… .”
After a moment of silence, the grandfather gave his opinion.
“You, come on a trip with me.”
“Huh? Suddenly -”
“I know better than you what concerns you, especially the surveillance and trickery of the Administration. Do you understand?”
“I guess so.”
No matter how insightful I may be, those who have worked in the Administration know the most about the Administration.
“Trust me this time. I have a good idea.”
“What is that?”
“Let’s gather information outside the territory of the management bureau.”
Outside the jurisdiction of the administration.
“Is there such a place in the world?”
“This is not a normal world.”
“yes?”
“Oh, by the way, you’ve been working as an exorcist for a few weeks, right? That’s good.”